Of Hospitals, Acacias, and Mums
by ckret2
Summary: After failing to retrieve Sasuke, Neji wakes up to find an odd guest in his hospital room, with flowers. At first he's confused, but eventually even returns the favor... [Sound 4 arc and Save Gaara arc spoilers. KankurouNeji. Oneshot.]


A/N: Ah, one-shots, how I love thee. And I love when people give me fic requests, too. Anyway, this particular fic was a request from creepy-crawly on Livejournal. (The hyphen, BTW, is an underscore.) She requested Kankurou/Neji and in return I got Orochimaru/Naruto. I have the world's weirdest OTPs.

Warnings: Kankurou/Neji is, obviously, slash. The fic is pure vanilla shounen-ai, so if you want your smut fix you'll have to go somewhere else.

Disclaimer: The characters are property of Kishimoto, the pairing is the fault of creepy-crawly, and the fic itself is mine.

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Of Hospitals, Acacias, and Mums

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The first thing Neji saw when he opened his eyes was a vase full of flowers. He blinked in confusion; where was he? Neji looked up. A plain white ceiling, fluorescent lights. That didn't tell him much, but he knew he wasn't at home. He looked left. An IV drip. So, he was at the hospital.

"So, you finally woke up."

Neji looked to the right again. Now he noticed someone sitting in a chair beside his bed, next to the table the flowers were on. He frowned. He knew he recognized the person, but where…

His eyes opened wide. The ninja puppeteer from Sand! Neji tried to stand, but a pain shot through his chest. He could barely sit up. Grimacing, Neji glared at the puppeteer. "What…?"

"Calm down," the puppeteer said, holding his hands up defensively. "I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

The Sand shinobi had worked with Sound before. Now Neji remembered how he'd gotten here. He'd been injured on the mission to retrieve Sasuke. Had Sand been involved in that, too?

"Where is this?" Neji demanded.

"The Konoha hospital," the puppeteer – it was Kankurou, Neji remembered – said. He grinned at Neji's surprised look. "What? Where did you think we were?"

Neji didn't answer, frowning. What was a Sand ninja doing in Konoha?

Kankurou snapped his fingers. "That's right! You haven't heard yet. You've been unconscious the past few days." His grin widened. "We're your allies again. Temari, Gaara and I had to save the rest of you."

"I see." Neji relaxed, leaning back against his pillow.

His chest and back hurt from the damage he'd taken. He wanted to know if, after all that, the mission had been a success, but he'd rather ask Shikamaru. So he stayed silent.

Kankurou didn't seem to be content with the silence. After a moment, he cleared his throat and spoke. "Um, how are you?" he asked awkwardly. "I mean your injuries. Do they hurt too much?" When Neji didn't answer immediately, he added, "I think I've got some sedatives I use for my puppets' poison. They can work like a painkiller if you only take a little bit…"

"No, thank you," Neji said.

"Are you sure?" Kankurou asked.

"Yes."

Kankurou nodded, and leaned back in his seat. "If you say so."

Neji wondered if someone had told Kankurou to watch over him. He seemed uncomfortable, but wasn't leaving. Kankurou's presence didn't bother Neji that much, but he wondered why Kankurou was there.

Once again, Kankurou tried to start a conversation. "I'm surprised you got beat up," he said. "I saw you fighting in the Chuunin exams. You're really good."

Neji nodded. "I didn't see your fight," he said.

"It was nothing special," Kankurou said, looking down. Even without the Byakugan, Neji could tell he was embarrassed about something. "But yours was good. I don't know how that blond kid beat you, anyway. You're way stronger than him."

"The stronger one is the one who wins the fight," Neji said.

Kankurou shrugged. "Maybe he was lucky?"

"I don't believe in luck."

"Oh." The room fell silent again.

Neji looked over at the vase again. There were several large purplish flowers, with a few smaller yellow ones underneath. He wondered where it was from.

"Do you like it?" Kankurou asked. He grinned sheepishly. "I got help from the girl in the flower shop to put it together. Ino, I think. She said she knows you."

That meant Kankurou was here for personal reasons, not business. "Really?"

"Yeah. She said the purple ones are chrysanthemums, and the little yellow ones are acacia. They mean friendship."

"But we aren't friends," Neji said.

Kankurou laughed nervously. "Uh, right," he said. "That's what she said I should get, though. So…"

Neji nodded. Ino could be insistent at times. "Thank you."

Kankurou looked surprised. "You're welcome."

After that he didn't try to start another conversation. Silence didn't bother Neji, so he lay down, satisfied to look at the ceiling and rest. Kankurou sat in the room for ten, perhaps twenty minutes, still uneasy.

When someone opened the door Kankurou jumped up immediately, muttered a quick "Get better soon," and shoved past a bewildered Tenten.

"What was that all about?" Tenten asked, stepping into the room. "Was that one of the genin from Sand?"

"Yes," Neji said. "I don't know why he was here, either."

"Huh," Tenten said. She shut the door and held up a couple white flowers. "I got these from Ino. It looks like someone already came by," she said, walking around the bed and setting one flower beside the vase. "Hey, what are the yellow ones?" Tenten asked. She pointed at the vase.

"Acacia," Neji said.

"That's funny. Ino said someone had come in earlier to buy flowers and got some yellow acacia," Tenten said. "She tried to talk into getting a different color, but he insisted on yellow. I guess they were for you, huh?"

"Why did she want him to get another color?" Neji asked.

"Because the chrysanthemum means friendship," Tenten said. She picked up one of the clusters of acacia. "So do most acacia, which is why she thought he wanted them with the mums. But when an acacia is yellow, it means concealed love."

She put the flowers back and grinned. "Well, that's what Ino says, at least. The guy probably just liked yellow better. Anyway, I've gotta go. Visiting time is over in a few minutes, and I still have to give this flower to Lee. See ya!" She left, waving.

What had happened to Lee? Neji figured he'd tried to train too hard while Neji was on the mission with Shikamaru.

Neji was more curious about the bouquet, though. Kankurou had said Ino insisted on the flowers. But if that was true, why had he wanted yellow acacia, especially if Ino recommended against it?

After all, Kankurou was a guy. There was a chance he'd gotten the flowers on behalf of his sister, but Kankurou had been the one to sit in Neji's room for over half an hour. He didn't know how long Kankurou had been waiting for him to wake up, either.

Neji shut his eyes to try to rest. Concealed love. It was odd, and unlikely…

But it was still possible.

Two and a half years later

Kankurou was sitting up in his hospital bed working on Karasu when someone knocked on the door and came in. "You're looking better," Temari said.

"Yeah. The antidote worked quick," Kankurou said. He frowned. "But they aren't letting me get up anyway."

"Annoying, isn't it?" Temari said. "They wouldn't let me go along to save Gaara. I guess we're both stuck here."

"That's stupid," Kankurou said. "At least you should go. You're not even injured, and Gaara's our brother!"

"I think that's why they aren't letting us go," Temari said, smirking.

"Hmph." Kankurou lifted the one of Karasu's arms, bending it to test how well the joint worked. It was so frustrating, just sitting here.

"By the way, I'm also here to make a delivery," Temari said. "Do you remember Hyuuga Neji, from Konoha?"

"Of course!" Kankurou said. He and Neji hadn't seen each other much in the past few years, but occasionally Sand and Konoha shinobi had worked together on missions. They'd become friends. Occasionally Kankurou wondered how much of their friendship had been built on pity. He'd been pretty awkward a couple of years ago, especially around Neji. But Kankurou had gotten past that phase. Mostly.

"I thought so." Temari grinned knowingly. There weren't many secrets between siblings. Kankurou blushed and scowled at her.

"In any case, he got these for you before everyone left to save Gaara." Temari back and pulled out something she'd tucked into the sash tied around her waist. It was a bouquet. "They must have cost a fortune," she said. Kankurou set down his tools so he could accept the flowers from Temari. "I wonder if he realized flowers are a lot harder to get in the desert than they are in his country."

"He's probably just returning the favor," Kankurou said. He instantly recognized the flowers: chrysanthemums and acacia, all of them red. It was the same as the bouquet Kankurou had gotten for Neji, over two years ago, except for the colors. And the meanings. Red acacia meant just friendship. He sighed, but didn't know why he was disappointed. What had he been expecting?

Temari's knowing grin was back. "You're a pretty lucky guy, you know," she said. "Do you know what those flowers mean?"

"Yeah, friendship," Kankurou said. "Both of them."

"Not the chrysanthemum," Temari said. "It's red."

"Yeah. So?" Kankurou didn't know anything about flowers except what the flower girl in Konoha had told him several years ago, but he knew chrysanthemums meant friendship, too.

"When they're red, it means the person giving you the flower is in love with you." The smile on Temari's face became absolutely wicked, and Kankurou started to blush.

"Really? How do you know?" Kankurou asked. He wouldn't be surprised of Temari was just teasing him.

"I'm a girl, I know these things," Temari said. When Kankurou didn't stop looking suspiciously at her, she rolled her eyes. "Come on! I've never made fun of your crushes before, have I? Why would I start now?"

That was true, Kankurou admitted. It was for that reason that Kankurou had come out to Temari before anyone else. She'd simply insisted that Kankurou never ask to go boywatching with her, which was perfectly fine with him. They both had better things to do with their time.

"Okay. So what does this mean?" Kankurou asked, inspecting the bouquet.

"Either Neji doesn't know anything about flowers, or he's trying to tell you something," Temari said. She stood up. "You can figure that out on your own. I'd stay longer but I'm on border patrol. Get better soon and maybe we can sneak out of the village to go find Gaara." At the door to the room, she said, "Maybe you can thank Neji while you're at it."

When Temari was gone, Kankurou turned the bouquet over in his hands. The choice of flowers hadn't been a coincidence, which meant the colors probably hadn't been either. Neji was too careful for that.

"Love, huh?" he said. He set the flowers beside him. "I guess I am lucky."

Kankurou picked up his tools and started working on Karasu again, smiling to himself. He couldn't wait to see Neji again.

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A/N: Hope that wasn't too sappy, heh. Anyway, review and let me know what you think, whatever it is! Praise makes me squee, concrit makes me a better writer, and flames make me laugh.


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